TV actress Melissa McIntyre

Events in 1986 and 31-5

Events in the world in the birth year of Melissa McIntyre

• Spain and Portugal join European Economic Community (Jan. 1).
• President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in US (Jan. 8). US planes attack Libyan "terrorist centers" (April 14).
• Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees to France (Feb. 7).
• President Ferdinand Marcos flees Philippines after ruling for 20 years; newly elected Corazon Aquino succeeds him (Feb. 26).
• Union Carbide agrees to settlement with victims of Bhopal gas leak in India (March 22).
• Major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world (April 26 et seq.).
• Ex-Navy analyst, Jonathan Jay Pollard, 31, guilty as spy for Israel (June 4).
• World Court rules US broke international law in mining Nicaraguan waters (June 27).

Birthday Melissa McIntyre (31-5) in history

• Day 31-5 year 1790: The first U.S. Copyright Law was enacted, protecting books, maps, and other original materials.
• Day 31-5 year 1889: Heavy rains caused the South Fork Dam to collapse, sending 20 million tons of water into Johnstown, Pa. Over 2,200 people were killed and the town was nearly destroyed.
• Day 31-5 year 1911: The hull of the Titanic was launched in Belfast. At the ceremony, a White Star Line employee claimed, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
• Day 31-5 year 1961: South Africa became an independent republic.
• Day 31-5 year 1962: Former Gestapo official Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel.
• Day 31-5 year 1970: An earthquake in Peru left more than 50,000 dead.
• Day 31-5 year 2004: Alberta Martin, 97, one of the last widows of a U.S. Civil War veteran, died. She had married Confederate veteran William Martin in 1927 when she was 21 and he was 81.
• Day 31-5 year 2010: Nine people are dead after an Israeli navy commando attacks a flotilla of cargo ships and passenger boats on their way to Gaza to provide aid and supplies for the area.